People Who Murder Should Be Put To Death

October 16, 2011|By FRANK HARRIS III, The Hartford Courant

"The death penalty is not dreaded so much for the pain consequent on its infliction, as for the realities of the future into which the disembodied spirit is suddenly ushered. …Therefore let the death penalty, when demanded by the stern voice of the law, be executed in the mildest manner possible …"

Hartford Daily Courant, April 16, 1849

We kill them softly in Connecticut.

We meaning the state.

Connecticut, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, is one of 35 states with the death penalty. Whether we agree or disagree with the death penalty, the condemned are killed in our name.

But we kill them softly compared to the way they killed their victims. Opponents of the death penalty, however, would argue that if we kill the condemned, it is still a killing. No softness to it. It is a hard death, a hard death with no redeeming results.

A killing is killing.

But this notion that a killing is a killing is no more valid than the notion that dead is dead, for it is not that someone died or was killed, but how and for what reason that someone died or was killed that determines our approach to the living who may or may not bear responsibility.

This remains true today as it did in our yesteryears. It's timeless. As evident from that dusty Courant story, the death penalty has long been a topic close to the heart, close to the mind. Then as now, most believe those who murder should be put to death.

According to a Gallup Poll survey of one year ago, 64 percent of Americans favor the death penalty. This is down from 20 years ago when the number was 76 percent. It is still a majority, but shrinking. Although the arguments for the cessation of the death penalty have merit — that it is racially biased, unfairly administered, does not reduce crime and does not allow for a do-over for the innocent once the execution is carried out — I still believe the death penalty should remain on the books.

I believe people who murder should be put to death.

There are instances when the execution that is carried out causes one to pause and consider: Was this person innocent? The recent case of Troy Davis in Georgia would be one such instance. Davis was executed despite worldwide cries for clemency because of evidence said to cast doubt on his guilt.

No one wants to execute an innocent person.

So should one innocent person executed among a hundred guilty persons merit the removal of the death penalty from the books? The system is run by people, so it is bound to be imperfect. That said, an innocent person sentenced to life imprisonment instead of death has the chance to one day be found innocent. But the innocent person sentenced to death exhausts all options once the death penalty has been carried out. It's over.

Only Jesus returns.

How many are innocent? How many are guilty?

In the case of the Cheshire home invasion murders of three Petit family members in July 2007, Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky were caught fleeing the burning house with three of the four Cheshire family members inside. Does anyone doubt their guilt?

Hayes has already been sentenced to death; Joshua Komisarjevsky will soon be given his sentence.

In that 1849 article in the Hartford Daily Courant, the writer was referring to a new agent called chloroform for carrying out the execution of convicted killers: "The law does not compel the Sheriff to perform his duty with all the cruelty in his power, but on the contrary supposes he will do it with all possible lenity."

I sat in on one session of the Hayes trial. Seeing the burn patterns and how they poured the gasoline amid all else they did to the three victims revealed how gruesome the murders were. Hearing how Komisarjevsky tried to minimize his role rings hollow. They took lives and theirs should be taken.

For Hayes and, if he is given the death penalty, Komisarjevsky, theirs would be a less violent death than the ones they inflicted upon their victims. Yes, it's capital punishment and yes they will die for what they did — but they will still be getting off easy.

Because we kill them softly in Connecticut — with a needle.

That is far better than they deserve.

Frank Harris III is chairman of the journalism department at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven. He can be reached at harrisf1@southernct.edu.